Study: Used Games, Online Make Up 46 Percent Of U.S. Gamers' Budget

The total budget of U.S. gamers aged eight and up is $25.3 billion, and according to consumer spending data from research firm Newzoo, 46 percent of that budget goes to the used game trade and online models including subscriptions, virtual currency, microtransactions and digital distribution. That means that the remaining 54 percent of the total goes to packaged new game retail, Newzoo said in data provided to Gamasutra. The firm, which conducted the 13,000-respondent study in cooperation with TNS as part of the 2009 Today’s Gamers Survey, said the U.S. claims 183.5 million gamers. In all countries, console games take up over half of the money spent on video games, with the exception of Germany, which has a strong PC gaming market. U.S. gamers spend the most amount of its total budget on console games, with over $15 billion spent on home and handheld software. PC followed with $4.15 billion spent total. Game portals claimed $2.78 billion, mobile devices $1.1 billion and MMOs $2.12 billion. Traditional new game packaged retail retains a stronger foothold in Europe. In Belgium, packaged retail claims 59 percent of the domestic gamers' budget, in Germany 62 percent, in the UK 64 percent, in the Netherlands 69 percent and in France 78 percent. Below are the total budgets for gamers in their respective countries, as well as the total number gamers in each country, according to Newzoo's report. Below is the revenue share between gaming platforms, broken down by country, according to Newzoo's summary of the full report (PDF).